He breaks open a shaft away from the inhabitants; even in places forgotten of the foot: they are gone away from men, they swing to and fro.
All Commentaries on Job 28:4 Go To Job 28
Gregory The Dialogist
AD 604
47. What was that people of the Jews, hard by unbelief, that refused to behold by faith that Author of life, whom it foretold by prophecy, but ‘a stone of darkness?’ because it proved at once hard by cruelty, and clouded by unbelief. Which same is also called by another term ‘the shadow of death.’ For a shadow is drawn such and of the same sort as the outlines were of that object, from which it is derived, And who is designated by the name of’ death’ but the devil? Of whom in a kind of mode of representation by his minister’ it is said, And his name was Death. [Rev. 6, 8] Of whom that people was a shadow, because in following his wickedness, it presented in itself a semblance of him. But what is named by the title of the ‘torrent,’ save that fire that issues forth from the sight of the Awful Judge in the final Inquest, and divides the Elect and the damned? Whence too it is said by the Prophet, A fiery and rapid stream came forth from before Him. [Dan. 7, 10]
48. But what People is ‘on travel’ in this world, but that which hastening to the inheritance of the Elect knows well that it has its native country in the heavenly world, and expects that it will there find its own the more, in proportion as here it reckons all things that pass away to be unconnected with itself? Thus the ‘pilgrim People’ is the number of all the Elect, who accounting this life a species of exile to themselves, pant with the whole bent of the heart after their native country Above; of which persons Paul saith, And confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things, declare plainly that they seek a country. [Heb. 11, 13. 14.] This pilgrim state that same Apostle also was undergoing when he said, Knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we go pilgrims [peregrinamur] away from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. [2 Cor. 5, 6. 7.] The woes of this pilgrim state he was in haste to get quit of when he said, Having a desire to depart and to be with Christ; [Phil. 1, 23] and again, To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. [ver. 21] The burthen of this pilgrimage the Psalmist felt lying heavy upon him, when he said; Woe is me that I sojourn in Mesech, that I dwell in ,the tents of Kedar! My soul hath been much a sojourner. [Ps. 120, 5. 6.] From this he was panting to be extricated as speedily as possible, when inflamed with heavenly aspirations he said, My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God; when shall I come and appear before God! [Ps. 42, 2] But this desire they are strangers to, who rivet their heart on earthly gratifications. For whilst they love only the things that are visible, surely the invisible things, even if they believe them to exist, they do not love, in that whilst they follow themselves too much with the outward following, even in the interior they become carnal. Thus both people run together in this life, but do not together attain to the life everlasting, because, the stone of darkness and the shadow of death the torrent divides from the people on travel. As if he said in plain speech, ‘Those whom in this present time either infidelity makes blind, or cruelty makes hard, the fiery stream that issues from before the Judge Eternal doth then sever from the People of the Elect, that thus from the company of good men the fire of the strict Inquest should part those, whom the darkness of evil habits makes blind in their lusts.
49. Perhaps by the designation of the ‘torrent,’ the actual whatering of holy preaching may be understood, according to that, that is said by Solomon; The eye that sneereth at his father and despiseth the travail of his mother, lo the ravens from the torrents shall pick it out. [Prov. 30, 17] For bad men, while they find fault with the judgments of God, do ‘sneer at their father,’ and heretics of all sorts whilst in mocking they contemn the preaching of Holy Church, and her fruitfulness, what else is this but that they ‘despise the travail of their mother?’ whom we not unjustly call the mother of them as well, because from the same they come forth, who speak against the same, as John bears witness, who says, They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us. [1 John 2, 19] But ‘the ravens from the torrents come,’ when the true Preachers come forth for the defence of Holy Church from the streams of the Sacred Books. Which same also are rightly termed ‘ravens,’ because they never pride themselves on the light of their righteousness, but by the grace of humility confess in themselves the blackness of sins. Whence too, it is spoken by the Church of Elect souls, I am black, but comely. And John says, If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. Which same ravens, no doubt, ‘pick out the eyes’ of him that ‘sneereth,’ because they overcome the aim of bad and froward men. Thus by this testimony, if here as well ‘the torrent’ is to be taken for preaching; the stone of darkness, and shadow of death, the torrent divides from the people on travel; because the preaching of the Saints gives over the hardened minds of the lost, and betakes itself to the pious hearts of the lowly. Hence it is yet further subjoined,
Those whom the foot of the needy man forgot, a1~d the inaccessible ones.
50. What other in this place is taken to be the needy man, saving Him concerning Whom it is said by Paul, Though He was rich, yet .for your sakes He became poor. [2 Cor. 8, 9] The ‘feet’ of which ‘needy man’ were the holy Preachers, by the presence of which same compassing the Gentile world, He went round about the whole globe. Of whom it is said by the Prophet, And I will walk in them. [Lev. 26, 12] Was not he His foot, who whilst held fast in fetters, said, For which I am an ambassador in bonds? [2 Cor. 6, 16. Eph 6, 20] But those, who proved themselves ‘a shadow of death and a stone of darkness,’ ‘the foot of the needy Man forgot,’ because in the very outset of the new born Church, whereas the holy Apostles were minded to have preached the kingdom of heaven to Judaea, seeing that they profited for nothing at all, they went off for the preaching to the Gentiles, as they themselves say in their Acts; It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you; but seeing ye put it ,from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles. [Acts 13, 23] Concerning whom also it is said by the Psalmist, The mountains shall be carried into the heart of the sea [Ps. 46, 2]; because the Apostles, being thrust off by Judaea, were ‘carried’ into this scene of the Gentile world. Who then are those, that by unbounded hardness and from dimsightedness of heart, like a kind of’ stone of darkness and the shadow of death,’ are divided from the People of the Saints going on travel, saving those whom’ the foot of the needy Man forgot,’ i.e. whom the Preachers of the Lord, poor as He was, that is, in respect of human nature, abandoned on account of the swelling of their pride; and those they wholly forgot, whilst they transferred the seeds of their preaching to the getting fruit of the Gentiles only? Whom moreover he rightly calls’ inaccessible’ also, because while they were hardened in their infidelity, they refused to give the words of life access to their heart. But this Judaea which grows thus hardened, whether what she was for 1ong, or what she underwent afterwards, let us listen to.
